Burning Admissions
by cckia27
Summary: Walter finally admitted he has feelings for Paige, but things aren't always what they seems. Don't they? Read more to find out. (Post 1x22 - Postcards over the egde) - Rated T but it might change
1. Chapter 1

_**BURNING ADMISSIONS**_

 _ **Chapter 1  
**_

Walter was managing a piece of metal on the table in front of his rocket; he worked hard on it lately. The deadline of the contest was scheduled for next month and, as a consequence of the cases that the team had to solve and his rehabilitation, he couldn't spend as much time as he would on the project. He was absorbed in his thoughts when he heard Paige calling his name. The genius didn't know why she insisted on working late in the last few months, but after his nearly dead experience, she was more protective toward him and even if he would have never admitted, he secretly liked it very much. However the tension between them increased exponentially in those weeks and every time there was a physical contact involved, it usually ended up with one of them apologizing to the other, if not blushing shamelessly.

"Paige, do you need anything? You'd supposed to be at home with Ralph" he asked while she approached his workspace. She looked relaxed.

"Yes, in fact I'm here for that. I'm heading home right now." She gave him a shy smile.

"Okay" he was visibly disappointed. Walter really thought she needed something from him, but apparently it was just a mere goodbye "See you tomorrow then" he smiled her back.

Paige hold his gaze for a while and turned to leave; she came back abruptly and stopped dangerously close to Walter, who immediately froze. Her lavender perfume was strong and her scent relaxed him somehow.

"I think we should talk about… well, everything" she began. They never talk about what happened before his accident, her leaving, him wanting to tell something that he never spoke about again.

"Paige-" he tried but she blocked him shaking her head.

"No, let me explain first. I think we need to discuss the situation we put ourselves in because it's getting unbearable for me."

"I'm sorry" he whispered. Paige was holding his gaze so deeply and Walter implored her with his eyes to never stop. Then she cupped his face and spoke softly.

"Don't. You have no idea how many times I wanted to ask you to tell me what you were going to say on the cliff edge. But I was scared you could put up your walls and shut me out, like you always do when it comes to deal with emotional speech." She bit her lip.

"I…" Walter didn't know what to say, so he tried again "Paige, I…"

"What did you want me to know, Walter?" she begged him for an answer.

Walter lips parted. His brain wasn't functioning anymore, it never entirely did when she was around. The genius wanted to tell her how much he cared about her, but he wasn't sure if she expected more. Paige was her employee and he didn't want to ruin the professional relationship they had, neither their friendship. It was also true that he was very attracted to that woman. After her decision to stay he was over the moon. Walter was glad she changed her mind, so Ralph would have stayed around. In that moment the signals she was giving him screamed "more". And since the genius refused to ever say the word love to anyone he tried something else. Walter had always been ill equipped when it came to deal with emotions and even if he improved since Paige came around it still was un unknown territory. He opted for an action instead.

"Walter?" she asked again, stroking his arm, with a stare that was making him thrill all over again.

Before he could change his mind he ran his fingers thought her hair and pulled her close. Walter leaned on her lips, giving her a chaste kiss. However he didn't pull back immediately and neither did Paige; she deepened the kiss instead, while Walter drew circles on her arms and down her back. He didn't know why he was touching her skin like that but it just felt the right thing to do. Just like when he constantly stroked Ralph's hair when he's around. Toby told him his subconscious had more EQ than when he was awake.  
His head started spinning and couldn't figure out why. Then his eyes opened wide as he realized that he was lying in his bed and it was all a dream, well… not exactly everything.

Walter pulled away and find himself catching his breath few inches away from Paige's face. She was real and so the kiss he gave her, there was no turning back from that.

 **SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS**

Paige finished to organize her stuff for the next day and put everything in place on her table. Then she grabbed her bag ready to go home to her son. Once again she was late and there was no need to check the clock to know it. It happened a lot lately and, these last few weeks, despite the fact that Paige wanted to be at home at a decent hour, she needed to stay a little longer. The young mother lost count on how many times she thought she needed to talk with Walter. The woman came to realize she couldn't hide her feelings any longer and his constantly change of behavior when she was around told her that he probably felt the same. Walter wasn't acting strange around his friends or Cabe. Paige wanted so bad to tell him how much she cared about him, and doing it preferably when he was awake. However something was pulling her back, might it be his reaction? What if he wasn't ready?

One day she found Toby writing something on a whiteboard and hide it quickly when she went near him. He tried to avoid her questions, but in the end she got him to spit it out. He confessed it was a chart about her and Walter. He was updating it changing the voice interactions with "awkward-actions" to the list of the exchanges that they pair had from the first time they met until tgat very moment. Then Toby started gave her a speech, again. In some way she wasn't pissed at his constantly commenting on them and she was sure that the shrink was even more persistent with Walter.  
After all it wouldn't be Toby otherwise.

"Walter? I'm going home! See you tomorrow." She said aloud enough for him to heard her voice, but the genius didn't respond right away and that was odd. Paige climbed the stairs and knocked on the door of his loft. Still no answer.

She found him soundly sleeping in his bed and smiled at his cuteness.

"Paige…" Walter told her name and mumbled something she couldn't distinguish.

She waited in silence unable to decide what to do next. He called her name in his sleep and now she was blushing hard. She literally felt her face on fire and her thoughts danced on the dream, correction, _dreams_ that she made about him. What if he… she couldn't bring herself to think about it and raised her eyebrows in disbelief. Paige turned to leave but he was still mumbling with a frown, so she approached him instead. Once she sat on the edge of his bed, Paige was barely inches away from him. The young woman saw him relaxing.

"Paige-" mumbles "I'm sorry" he said in a clear whisper.

She had no idea what was happening in his dreams but she found herself cupping his face telling him he shouldn't be. _Don't._ Paige was observing the man before her, the one she fell for and waited.

Suddenly he spoke again. "I… Paige, I…".

"Walter?" she tried to wake him stroking his arm. She didn't succeeded. Instead he ran his finger through her honey hair, causing her to forget how to breath and to follow his movement down. Walter lifted his head up enough to kiss her with his soft lips. Paige let herself be driven by the moment and responded to the genius deepening the kiss.  
Paige knew that it was wrong, he was completely asleep and if he woke up in the meantime she was afraid to know how he would have reacted. Being caught in the heat of the moment, she couldn't bring herself to escape this dangerous situation. Their kisses were searing and hot, then wild and wet. They hold each other and kept that connection for a while until both of them needed air and so they parted. She had her eyes close and all she could hear was his heavy breath.

"Paige?" his voice cracked. She immediately opened her eyes and saw Walter watching her confused and scared. "I… Oh, God… I'm sorry" he pulled away and went far as possible from her, leaning on the other side of the bed.

"Walter, it's okay. I wouldn't never let you do it if I didn't want you to." _How could I be so stupid?_ She added to herself.  
Walter on the other side stopped functioning, he was still able to taste her kiss and he was clueless on what to do next. It wasn't supposed to happen like that, or ever. He wanted to vanish instantly.

"Walt, look at me" Paige said leaning a hand toward him but then she hadn't go further to touch him. Hesitantly she retracted it and waited for him to respond to her begging.

The genius was shocked and instead of looking at her he just shut his eyes. "It was just a dream. In fact this doesn't mean I feel the same in reality" he lied. He regretted his own words very quickly and, when he finally met her gaze, Walter saw that she was hurt.

"Don't you?" she asked avoiding his look.

He analyzed the situation and as he previously calculated, there was no turning back from his actions. "Maybe I do" he answered after a long pause, his eyes glued on the floor "In… in my dream you asked me what I wanted you know… on th-that cliff edge". Paige locked her eyes on him but this time he was the one trying to avoid the gaze of the other.  
"What did you told me, then?" she barely whispered.

"I didn't tell you anything" Walter met her eyes to observe her, examine her reaction. Paige was baffled at first, then she slowly raised her eyebrows finding the answer she was looking for.

"Would you show me again?" she asked unexpectedly.

"Wha-" His lips parted and stared at her "Y-you want me to…"

She firmly nodded biting her lower lip.

* * *

 _ **Preview for chapter 2 (now available):** how far are Walter and Paige going? What will happen next?  
_

 _ **(Edited) Let me know what you think in the reviews! Thank you for reading and if you have any suggestion let me know.**_


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: Thank you for the kind reviews! Here's a new chapter! **  
**_

* * *

 _ **Chapter 2**_

" _In… in my dream you asked me what I wanted you know… on th-that cliff edge". Paige locked her eyes on him but this time he was the one trying to avoid the gaze of the other.  
"What did you told me, then?" she barely whispered._

" _I didn't tell you anything" Walter met her eyes to observe her, examine her reaction. Paige was baffled at first, then she slowly raised her eyebrows finding the answer she was looking for._

" _Would you show me again?" she asked unexpectedly._

" _Wha-" His lips parted and stared at her "Y-you want me to…"_

 _She firmly nodded._

His ears were burning. "I-I'm not comfortable with this" he whispered as he was afraid of his own voice.

Paige took one step closer always holding his gaze. "It's ok" her voice was soft and calm. She grabbed his hands and the movement remind them both that famous flirtation lesson. Despite the purpose, Paige trying to teach him how to flirt with a woman, she enjoyed the moment fantasizing that she was the one Walter had to seduce instead. It was a cute moment, yet awkward; just the fact he couldn't bring himself to act like a normal guy made her giggle more than once. Obviously he wasn't normal and she would have never change him for anything else.

"This isn't a dream, my emotional level is different when I'm… awake" he chuckled nervous, trying not to freeze at the touch of her warm hands and it wasn't that easy.

"Shhh" she was so close to him that there was no space left. Walter could feel the heat of her body while his heart started racing like a mad horse. _What the hell?_ He didn't know what to do. The woman in front of him asked to show her again what he was experiencing, but the way she looked in his eyes was burning his skull, leaving him with incoherent signals coming from his brain.  
When Paige realized that he needed a little push, she guided his hands and placed them on her hips. He never broke eye contact and that intense stare made her blush even more when he finally leaned forward to kiss her. It was a slow shy kiss, but soon it became hungrier and demanding.

Paige unlaced his tie letting it fall on the floor, then she proceeded to undo the buttons of his shirt. He merely managed to move his hands on her lower back pushing her body against his. Paige responded running her fingers on his neck sending shivers all over his body and cupping his cheeks with a soft touch. Walter was a person who certainly hated physical contact and yet that wasn't enough. He broke the kiss just the time necessary to remove her blouse, giving her space to completely undress his torso too.  
God, he looked so good. Paige didn't expect to see his body so tonic and Walter was also very pleased at the view he had in front of him. In few second he already calculated every curve of her body and came to the conclusion that she was simply perfect. When she noticed his gaze fixed on her bare skin her smile grew wider. He was in awe.

In his life full of math and science, Walter never imagined to experience a mix of emotions all at once. He was estranged and couldn't even gave a name to whatever he was feeling. He shut his brain and leaned down again to kiss her, unfortunately a phone start ringing. He groaned.

"Oh, no! Ralph." Paige immediately broke the contact and pulled out her phone from the bag. She restrained herself from answering once she saw the name on the light screen and left the room instead excusing herself.

Walter stood there a while before he fully regained the ability to move and his brain was already working fast to process everything that just happened. However the young genius was curious to know who was the mystery caller so, grabbing his shirt from the floor and fast buttoning it up, he approached the stairs to ear better. After few exchanges he figured out it was Drew and they were talking about Ralph. _I'm working Drew, I don't have to explain or justify to you what I do in my life anymore… yes... I know, that's why I'm heading home right now…_ Walter heard her say few more lines before she ended the call with a grunt. Although he hated Drew, Walter thought he was right. She should have been already home and not at the garage doing... _this_. He felt guilty, after all he was the cause that kept her from being with her son.

Walter saw Paige walking toward the stairs so he moved in quickly and pretended he hadn't heard anything. He grabbed the first object he had close at hand and waited for her to come back in.

Paige stopped right in front of the doorstep and she fought hard to repress a laugh. Walter was standing in front of the couch with a lamp in his hands. "Are you fixated on lights, now?" she joked. The genius put it down and explained her that there was a problem with the contact of a fuse or something like that. She couldn't understand what he was trying to tell her, mostly because her attention was focused on his manners. He was hilarious.

"Fine. You don't have to lie. I know you were listening… I would have done the same" she paused fixing her eyes on his "But now I really have to go home".

"Yeah, sure". He replied looking away "I'm sorry that I…" she kissed him on his cheek and he turned to face her quietly.

"Don't be" Paige had a smile stamped on her lips; then she pecked his cheek and grabbed her things to leave. "See you tomorrow, Walter. Goodnight!"

"Night" he replied before she was out of sight.

 **SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS**

Walter reflected all night. The mess he put himself into wasn't easy to deal with, so he analyzed every pro and cons three times in a row and the only conclusion he reach each time it involved him talking to Paige. Hopefully she would have agreed with him.

"What's up in your mind, 197?" Toby shook him awake.

"Mmm? Nothing". Walter was sat in front of his computer, but all he could see was images of the previous night. And, of course, Toby noticed that his head were somewhere else that morning. He leaned on his table placing both hands on it watching intensely. "You're reading my body language for whatever reason you have and it's upsetting. Stop analyzing me, Toby."

The shrink didn't gave up that easily and intensified his stare. Fortunately Paige opened the door greeting everyone in that very moment and so Walter took advantage of the moment of distraction to slip far from the persistent looks of his friend.

Paige saw Walter quickly sneaking out his desk and going to the back of the garage; she decided to follow. The young mother noticed anxiety in his body language and she questioned if the reason of that behavior was because of what she felt too.

"Walter?" she approached him from behind and he turned very quickly around.

He opened his eyes wide. "Paige. You followed me".

"Yes, indeed. I think we need to…" she watch over the other teammates to see if they were ear dropping, probably they were. Paige decided it was better to go outside, so she grabbed his wrist and guided him out of the building.

Walter saw in that gesture something similar to the previous night and, beside his brain told him to let go of her grasp, he just didn't. Fortunately they were far away from certain ears because he was certain of what she was going to say.

Paige fixed her white shirt to take time finding the right way to begin but Walter preceded her.

"Paige, I thought about the last weeks and the great work you did for the team. And... well, about last night too" he began running his fingers through his curly hair "and I don't want you to waist more of your time working late. It's not good for your healthy and because your a mother and Ralph need you. So... I decided to give you a day off". It wasn't exactly what he planned to say but it just came out that way.

Walter clearly left her speechless, in fact she opened her mouth to say something but she changed her mind immediately. Paige stared at him for a few seconds before she found her voice again.

"Are you kidding me? I'm perfectly fine with the current situation, Ralph is good too and anyway if I had any problems I could have told you immediately. There no need for me to go home, really." her smile died as soon as he didn't reciprocated it. "Listen if you're uncomfortable for-"

"I'm not... actually." He interrupted Paige "I just want to give you some time off to take care of Ralph and yourself. Your presence is not indispensable for this case" he faked a smile hoping she wouldn't notice.

The truth? He couldn't concentrate with her around. Every single thing he tried to do in the last twelve hours didn't manage to take his mind away from thoughts about Paige. And he was quite ashamed about some of them. He tried to occupied his brain with the rocket, with the ferret, he made some experiment and solved some complicated expressions. Walter tried anything but his car, since Happy confiscated his keys after his deadly stunt over the hill, and not once he successfully forget about it. His brain kept playing, rewinding and pausing those moments all night long. He was exhausted.

"If you say so." Paige brought him back to reality. She was disappointed and didn't care to hide it from the genius. "See you, then" with those few words she left going inside the building, grabbing her bag and in the end leaving.

When he walked back in, four pair of eyes fixated on him.

"Why are you watching me ...like that?" confusion was written all over his face.

Toby was the first to speak "Maybe because Miss Dineen just left to, and I quote…" he signed with his fingers up in the air "…go home and get some rest".

"She was tired, I told her to go home". He replied pouring some coffee in his cup.

Happy and Cabe raised their eyebrows, then Sly frowned. Neither of them looked convinced, in fact Toby insisted "She looked more, let's find an appropriate word... ah! _Pissed_... The only one tired here is _you_ , my friend".  
His tone far for friendly and Walter rolled his eyes. The genius walked toward his table and fixed his tie before sitting down and placing the cup, still in his hand, in the only empty space left on the wooden surface.

"Yeah. Whatever" he didn't want to discuss. "Let's talk about more urgent things such as… the case. Sly? How are your calculations on the…".

They discussed few minutes on the case, then they left to catch the culprit of the week. At the end of the day they were all drained.

 **SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS**

In the evening, Walter was in his loft avoiding certain comments by a known shrink, who drove him crazy all day with his assumptions and his commenting on how he was trying to keep distance with "his liaison".

He heard steps on the stairs and when the door opened he turn saying "Toby I already told to leave me alone!". It wasn't him; Happy stared at him quietly. "Listen I don't want any advice from you too."

"Actually, I'm not here for those." She said insecure. "Nah, it was a bad idea, Walt… doesn't mind".

The genius was suddenly intrigued by her statement and asked her to continue.

"You needed to free your mind and since I have your keys, I thought to bring you this" she showed her the keys of one of his favorite car, after respectively Lamborghini and Ferrari.  
He got up from the couch he was leaned on, grabbed her keys and ran down the stairs so fast that Happy couldn't do anything but giggle.  
Downstairs, there was a red Camaro LT that pleased him to be driven. Walter caressed the cold body and then went straight for the hood. Once he opened it the genius started analyzing the engine in every detail, leaving no space for anything else.

"I knew you would appreciate it" Happy walked near him still smiling and putting both hands on her hips continued "What do you say if we take a drive?".

At those words Walter watch her like a child whose been told he could eat all the chocolate he wanted.

His stare was intense and observed her carefully to understand if she was just making fun of him. "Are you serious?"

"Like a peakfreen" she deadpanned. _As Toby would have said._

"Wait a minute. Where is this car coming from?" he asked confused.

"Walt, I didn't steal it. It's from a client of my father, he left it at his garage for repair. I already fixed it and since that man won't be able to reclaim it until tomorrow evening, I _borrow_ it"

"And you trust me with it?"

"Easy, buddy. I'm coming with you".

Walter watch her quietly. He almost forgot the most important thing "What if I'm not able to drive.. yet?"

"I guess we'll never find out if you don't give it a try. I thought you didn't suffer from PTSD anymore... at least, you don't throw up every time you take a sit in the van". And with that she was deadly serious.  
Happy was right, he spent two months being unable to stay in a car longer than ten seconds. Toby called that a post-trauma caused by his involvement in a car accident. The genius knew it was a common thing among the victims of a violent event happened in their life. In this case he developed a phobia that caused him unpleasant panic attacks. Now it seemed he got over it and it was time to receive a clear answer, once for all.

Walter nodded. "Come on, let's go. The night doesn't wait!" he exclaimed in excitement climbing on the driver seat. Happy followed him in the passenger seat and with a roar they ran fast out the city.

Finally thanks to Happy he'd been able for a while to keep his mind off everything. When they got back home he was so tired that he forgot to thank her for letting him drive the Camaro.

 **SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS**

The next morning Walter felt relaxed, the drive clear up his mind, and was finally ready to confront Paige on the burning argument he couldn't no longer avoid. But she never came to work. As the hours passed, his concern raised exponentially so, partially even for Toby insistence, he convinced himself to go to her apartment and assure that everything was fine.

With Toby wonder, he asked him permission to take his car and drove down LA. When the genius arrived at Paige's apartment his smile grew wider. Maybe it wasn't the right call sending her home in the first place and now it was time to fix his mistake. Walter missed her presence at the garage and felt guilty for making her angry with his statement too.  
He climbed out the vehicle and crossed the street.

It was then, that a Deja vù hit him hard in the chest.  
Surely he wasn't prepared for the view in front of his eyes, Walter looked up, through the window, and almost felt a tear escape his orbits. He repressed the urge to scream and clenched his fists instead. Then, he knew very well that he shouldn't, but ran away with Toby's car as he slowly melted in a flow of emotions that took his mind and body over, leaving him completely breathless.

* * *

 _ **Preview for the next chapter:**_ _Paige didn't take well being sent home and felt guilty for putting them in that awkward situation... knowing this, what really happened when Walter looked at her window the next morning? Keep reading to find out!_

* * *

 _ **A/N: There no happy story without an angst twist... but don't you worry. Things will gets better... eventually.  
Don't forget to leave a review, it motivates me to continue this story. Thank you!**_


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N: Thank you for the reviews, follows and favorites!_

* * *

 **Chapter 3**

Disappointment was the right word to describe how Paige was feeling in that moment. Walter sent her home, clearly with the intent of avoiding her presence because of what happened. He half expected it, being cut off, however Paige didn't foresee that he would asked her to leave. She unlocked the door and slammed it behind her. The young woman was confident that they could have easily unraveled the situation with a good long talk, but guilt overcame when she realized it would have been better if she left Walter sleeping alone that night. Paige was so happy to know that the genius has feelings for her, that it wasn't just a gesture of affection he grew to understand. He dreamed about her and the way her was calling her name made her heart melt. The attraction was mutual, but a problem remained: Walter's inability of processing emotions was worse than she expected. The genius made big steps ahead and he was more confident since the day they met, but it wasn't enough yet. He was afraid of letting himself to be driven by feeling.

She tossed the bag on the dining table not caring much where it was actually landing, or even to moderate the intensity of the throw. Paige was disappointed and upset about the way things turned out to be. Exhausted she went straight to the bedroom letting out a sigh of frustration, then stopped on the doorstep suddenly changing her mind. Once again her mind took the best of her senses and led her to images of Walter laid on his blankets; she bit her lower lip. _Come on!_ She cursed herself for not being able to avoid certain thoughts, so opted to study instead.  
Paige was terribly way behind on her schedule because she was always at the garage working late. The think that bothered the most in that moment was the fact that Walter was right. She didn't want to leave him alone, but doing that she failed on the other fronts. She pushed away that echo in her head and opened a book ready to put her mind at ease.  
At the end of the day she hadn't concluded nothing. And she was even more upset than before as she pondered about what she did so wrong to always causing messes. And the next morning her desire to go to work was dead and buried.

Once she brought Ralph at school she drove back home. Paige took off the corner cupboard a bottle strong liquor.

 **SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS**

When Paige woke up again it was at 2:05 pm. She felt her head heavy with a little headache too. She didn't remember exactly when it was the last time she drank so much and when her eyes found Drew at the table reading a magazine panic ran through her body. She was on the couch, but she couldn't recall any of what happened in the hours before.

"Drew?" she said to the man in his living room.

He looked up raising his eyebrows "Paige, you're awake. Finally" he smiled.

"Wha-what are you doing here?" she asked with a shaky voice.

"Well, I was around and I see your car still parked here, so I decided to see how were you doing before I get back to Portland." he explained calm.

"Oh" was all Paige was able to formulate.

"I thought about the last argument we had and I wanted to apologize," he continued closing the magazine, putting it down on the table and finally adjusting in his seat, "how do you feel?"

"Wasted" she covered briefly her eyes then asked "What happened? I can't remember".

"I bet you wouldn't" Drew chuckled but ceased immediately when she gave him a not so friendly stare "Don't worry. You just..., well..., _kissed_ me"

"What?!" she jumped out the couch terrified. She would have _never_ kiss him sober, not anymore at least. It was over it and their story was an ended book, a very old one. Some pages of her life that she wouldn't read again if it wasn't strictly necessary.

"Hey, you don't need to worry. You were cheerful… too much, and you kept laughing… I knew you were drunk the minute you came closer. You smell of alcohol and it doesn't take a genius to figure it out" Drew remarked the last few words.

"And you let me kiss you?" she raised her arms up, shock written all over.

"Wait a minute. I stopped you almost immediately"

" _Almost_ , great. This is getting better every minute." she said under her breath starting walking up and down, then she changed subject. "Did any one called from the garage?"

"Nope." Drew crossed his arms and bit his lip "Are you afraid of something? Or someone? Perhaps you're afraid Walter find out you kissed me?" he guessed. The statement cause Paige to look straight in his eyes giving him all her attention.

"How dare you?! It's not that. You should have stopped me before, I don't drink a lot and when I do you know I'm completely out" she tried to give him an explanation but he just hit it on the nail. If there was something she didn't wanted to happen was Walter finding this out. Then she reflected a little more and came to the conclusion that she had nothing to worry about. Walter sent her home and it was unlikely he could came by to her apartment since he only did once, when he offered her a job with the team.

She took a deep breath and reset. "Fine. You go, now. I have to get ready and go to at the garage to see what the others are up to".

"Paige?" Drew called for her attention "Why were you drunk in the first place?".

"None of your business!" she quickly answer annoyed. "Now. You. Out." She said pushing him out of the apartment giving him no space for complaining.

 **SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS**

It took her only ten minutes to get ready and walked out. Paige made sure that Ralph would have been picked up by the babysitter and after few minutes she arrived at the garage.

"Oh Hey! Look who's late!" Toby exclaimed the minute she put a foot in the building. Her headache was pounding hard and Paige rubbed her fingers on the temples after she removed the sunglasses she was wearing. The hangover was killing her.

"Toby, save it. I'm not in the mood for jokes…" she looked around confused "You're all here, where's Walter? Up in his loft?".

Toby watched her baffled. "Mm, I thought he was with you." Even Happy and Sly picked in her direction. _Did she have an hangover?_ They didn't need to be geniuses to get that, it was pretty obvious.

"Wait… what?" she answer confused. Although she felt the need to puke, damned alcohol, fear took over her body.

"He left this morning to see if you were ill or something and he didn't return yet". The shrink told her raising his right eyebrow. "But by the look on your face I deduce he never made to the door" he smirked.

Paige was somewhere else. Her brain stopped to function the exact moment he said _morning_. She didn't know if she had to kill Drew for holding her such dangerous information, he didn't know anything and Walter didn't came by her apartment at all.

"Speak of the devil! Here you are." Toby smiled at the sight of his friend and when Paige turned in Walter's direction he saw the way he froze. He noticed she looked devastated, but he didn't spent another minute asking for an explanation. After what he witnessed that morning, he just didn't care anymore.

"Mm, yeah. Cabe called me, we have a hostage situation that require our expertise". He briefly made eye contact with Paige and anger came back to haunt him. "Let's go!" he said a little too louder and walked out of the garage.

 **SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS**

The team arrived on site quietly than ever and Cabe asked astonished if someone bit their tongue. When the trio of geniuses looked at Walter, who was clearly pissed, the old agent put the pieces together and went no further. Then Paige with sunglasses (rarely she put those on) was strangely far from Walter, like they were keep their distance and they never made eye contact with each other as he usually used to see. She had that look on her face, like a guilt person who needed to be forgiven.  
Cabe restrained himself to ask the real reason of such a bad mood, and told the geniuses that the man responsible for this mess took four hostages and lock himself up in a server room.

"He's an hacker, a very angry one. He's trying to catch everyone's attention and to do so, he loaded the building with bombs. The SWAT team individuate two spots for now, but they cannot disarm them yet. Each bomb is connected with the other and apparently the only way to stop the blow is entering in his computer and disable the program he's using. Correct me if I'm wrong"

"Yes, correct." Sly stated after he analyzed the monitors in front of them. "The program is clever, sophisticated and very well protected. It could take an hour to hack into it, Walter?"

"We can do that" he replied emotionless. "Do we know why he's in there? What is his request?"

"No, he hasn't made a call yet." Cabe removed his sunglasses "We don't know if this is the only building he detonated or there are others".

"There are for sure." Walter deadpanned "A man full of anger is unlikely leaned to take away few lives. He didn't made any request so either is confident that he has time on his side and homeland or any other authority involved will give him what he want, or the amount of explosives he placed inside the building is enough to blow up from one to three block. And I'm 98% certain that the right answer is the second one".

"Do you really think he would cause so much damage, Walter?" Sly asked.

"Yes. It's exactly what I would do". At that statement, Paige turned her gaze toward him and he noticed immediately, but didn't flinch a bit. The genius was trying his best to contain himself from yelling at her all he had in in mind in that very moment. He felt betrayed in a way that went beyond his knowledge. And the look the woman gave him, once she removed her glasses, that pity look made him want to punch something; and he was _never_ violent.

"Do we know the identity of the hacker?" he asked after he took a deep silent breath.

"Not his real name. He goes by the name of Pyro". The old agent answered.

"What a lovely name, so accurate" Toby's sarcasm fortunately lighted up the situation of tension.

"Okay, what do you say boss?" Happy started, but he wasn't beside them anymore. When she eyed him entering the building she yelled "WALTER!"

The team followed her and watch over the entrance, but the stubborn genius was already gone inside.

"What the hell is he thinking?" Cabe's tone was hysterical.

" _If_ he's thinking, you wanted to say" Toby stated as he glared at Paige whose look was terrified.

Happy took place moving Sylvester aside and connected the monitor to the cameras of the building searching for Walter. "Not good".  
They watching him walk toward the room where the armed hacker was locked in. The team observe the scene with their eyes wide open, there wasn't much they could do anyway. Walter knocked on the door and then raised his hands, after few seconds the door slowly opened and a gun appeared on the screen. The hacker gave Walter a sign to go inside and so he did. Happy switched camera and now they could see inside the room.  
Walter was talking to Pyro about something, and the hacker looked very calm. The genius was giving his back to the camera, preventing Toby to understand and translate the exchange between his friend and that crazy dude. He could only made hypothesis. Suddenly the hacker touched the computer in front of him and all the monitors went black.

"Damn it, Walter!" Cabe wasn't pleased by his actions today and that twist... he didn't see it coming. He was sure that his boy told that man to cut off the cameras.

The shrink observed the young mother standing few steps beside them, far from her usual closeness to them and identify it as a mechanism of defense. Whatever happened that very morning cause all this. Walter was irrational and Paige was completely off. She was petrified and almost let her glasses slept from her fingers; she didn't even dare to go near them, so Toby took a step beside her instead.

"Hey, he's gonna be fine". He said softly grasping her left hand. She was on the verge of crying.

"It's my fault" she whispered "He knows".

Toby frowned "What does he-"

A loud noise cut him off. It was a gun shot, followed by another one... and another one.

Paige instinctively started running. She was scared and the adrenaline made her sprint faster toward the building. She shout Walter's name and manage to slept away from Toby's arms.

Suddenly someone grabbed her from behind and lifted her up. She tried hard to escape that grip, but Cabe was stronger, blocking her and preventing her to do something stupid. "WALTER!" she shouted crying, many tears streamed down her face. "LET – ME – GO!" she kicked in the air harder as she could. Paige needed to see that Walter was okay, she almost lost him once and she couldn't bear to go through all this again. She needed him more than she needed air to breath.

"NOOO!" she yelled till she had no air left in her lungs, then her voice broke in her throat. "No" she said again in an inaudible whisper.

* * *

 **Next** : Walter's point of view... with a detailed flashback to that inconvenient kiss he saw. Will he come out alive of that building?

 _ **A/N: Thanks for reading and don't forget to tell me what you think and how you would see this story to continue. Review!**_


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N: Thanks to the lovely and talented WriterFreak001 for pointing out few facts I missed about hangovers. This is why I decided to correct the previous chapter, adjusting and rewriting few things about Paige and our beloved geniuses. They obviously know she's wasted.  
However, these corrections don't take away anything from the story or change it in any way, and if you've already read it you didn't missed much. But if you want to go back, (and I'll be tremendous grateful if you do) the changes starts from the paragraph in which Paige arrives at the garage and so on.  
I also correct few typos I missed the first time. Well, enjoy!_

* * *

 **Chapter 4**

Walter wanted to be anywhere but there. If Cabe didn't called him for this new case, he would certainly be who knows where, one thing was sure: as far as possible from _her_. When he drove back home he didn't expected to see Paige standing there, in the middle of the garage. There was something in her look that made him freeze. She looked scared; eyes wide open, lips parted. Not that his reaction was much better.

Sylvester brought him back to reality asking for support on his theory. "We can do that" he buried that little side of EQ he had left and started talking like a robot "Do we know why he's in there? What is his request?". The mad hacker took four hostages in the building in front of them.

"No, he hasn't made a call yet" he peeked briefly in Paige's direction while Cabe continued "We don't know if this is the only building he detonated or there are others".

"There are for sure." The genius explained his theory knowing that the situation could have been far worse than the SWAT team estimated. Then the human calculator asked him if he was certain.

"Yes. It's exactly what I would do". He felt her eyes on him, but he didn't flinch. However a flood of emotion strangled him from the inside. Images flashed in front of his eyes. _Paige was smiling as she put her arms around Drew's neck._ He immediately pushed away that memory shaking himself awake. He wanted to yell, but an invisible force prevented him from doing anything stupid. That wasn't the right moment to be childish and selfish, so he took a deep and silent breath.

"Do we know the identity of the hacker?" Walter turned completely toward Cabe leaving Paige out of his sight. Apparently, the name of this hacker was Pyro.  
Suddenly he found a solution to his problems and, as he quote himself, he decided it was better to go and "meditate". Meaning: blow off some steam doing some dangerous stuff. In that moment he could have cared less of rules or safety.

Walter walked fast toward the building, aware that the team didn't notice him slipping away, and only when he reached the door he finally heard Happy shouting his name. He caught the SWAT team out of guard too; in fact they hadn't the time to react and stop him before it was too late. However he was already inside and with no turning back allowed.  
Quickly he downloaded on his phone the blueprints of the edifice and found the server room where the hacker locked himself up with the hostages in a matter of seconds.  
Walter knocked on the cold surface of the door and quickly raised his arms, waiting for the man on the other side to open it.

"Who's this? Go away... or I swear I'll kill all of them" the genius heard cries coming from inside. And he urged to smarten the situation so he opted to go straight to the point.

"My name is Walter O'Brien and I work for Homeland as an independent contractor. I don't know exactly what you want, but I can help you".

"Help me, really?! You know nothing about this cause". Pyro clearly suppressed a laugh.

"No, but I know few things about hacking... Probably already heard of me. I'm Scorpion". He replied, then the door slid open. The genius pushed the right bottom and was proud of this right move. The man in front of him, however, was holding tight a Glock aiming for his torso. He hated those guns since the trigger puller was usually lighter than other firearms.

"I know someone with that name. Prove it's really you" he moved his fingers beside the trill. Obviously he wasn't a cheerful person.

"I hacked into NASA when I was eleven and the FBI arrested me". Walter smirked at the man excitement and he gave the young genius a sign to walk inside.

While ago Walter came to know that his nickname was way more famous, among certain hackers, that he could ever expect. It was a long shot, but fortunately it worked out fine.

"Hey man" the hacker stepped in front of a computer, always keeping with his gun pointed at his chest. "I guess we can help each other out, then". He paused and looked straight into the genius eyes. "You know, they're everywhere, they want to take control on us, on our brain" he tapped his temple while his eyes shot wide open "And the only way to stop their plan is destroying them all."

"Them… who are them, exactly?" Walter was utterly confused.

"You need to know that there are different kind of life among us, they're everywhere and they need to be eliminate". He looked around like he feared someone could hear his words.

 _Perfect, he was totally crazy._ Walter analyzed the situation and made some of his calculation fast. "Listen, I think I can help, but…" he leaned forward lowering his voice "you really need to let these people go. They're not _aliens_."

"You don't know that" he shook violently his head. "They're not going anywhere".

Damned. The genius had never been able to gave good speeches to people, and, if he said something wrong, he could probably let the crazy man snap and kill them all. So he sought for another approach.

"Hey, are you really willing to blow yourself up just for… this?" Walter lowered his arms a few couple of inches.

"Yes, we are motivated". _We? He wasn't alone? How could a group of people be ready to sacrificed themselves for something so irrational?_ Things were turning more difficult than he anticipated. At least his mind was fully occupied now.  
Walter never excluded the possibility of a possible existence of different form of life outside the Earth, but that was just… crazy. And Pyro was delusional.

"Well... if you said so, the first thing to do is cut off the cameras. They're probably watching us right now" he proposed with firm voice. If he went along with his action, probably he could control him and then stop him.

"You're absolutely right! Why didn't I think about it before?... See? You're a genius" the hacker exclaimed and leaned forward to digit on the keyboard.

Walter controlled the flashing red light of the camera going off to move around the table at his right, far from the hostages. If something had happened to him or, if he had to take extreme measures, he didn't want his friend to see him. Surely they were already upset by his whim, that was a fact, and also recognized it now that it was a stubborn move. Anyway, the genius would have handled that problem later.

"Did you placed bombs anywhere else? In other buildings, I mean." Walter carefully questioned.

"Not me, my fellows did." Unfortunately he grew suspicious. "Why are you so interested?... No.. no, no. You have a microphone!" he exclaimed aloud waking up to him fast. It was now or never.

Walter grabbed his gun and twisted it aside, like he saw once in a video tutorial for self-defense. However he didn't predicted that the man would have kicked him the stomach leaving him breathless. He fell on his knees watching the mad hacker reach again for the weapon. So, from the floor, Walter jumped right on the firearm, trying with all his efforts to grab it first. Both of them managed to grasp the gun and it was then, when the first shot went off. The bullet went straight in a wall few inches from an head of a hostage and the woman started screaming in horror.

Then a second shot went off scratching Walter shirt and causing his arm to start bleeding. However that didn't kept him from struggling again with Pyro. As a consequence of the great amount of adrenaline running through his veins Walter didn't feel pain in his arm and tried his best to turn the gun in the opposite side. The hacker managed to trip Walter and they both fell on the floor. The young genius could hear heavy steps coming closer in the hall. The agents were arriving fast.

The third and final shot went off too. He opened his eyes wider, trying to understand if he was the one hit by the bullet. They were inches from each other and the gun hidden between their bodies. Walter waited what it seemed an eternity.

The pain never came. Instead, a thin line of red blood started stream down the mouth of the man on top of him and he quickly pushed him aside shocked.

"Tell me who are the others? What are their names?" he demanded desperate, shaking madly the man's shoulder, but all he got in response was a choked laugh. Then life slowly left his eyes.

Walter was trembling and a special agent had to pull him away from the dead body with some effort.

 **SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS**

Paige calmed down, just enough to fool Cabe and managed to let escape from his grip. She literally flied inside the building while the others were following far behind.

When he got a glimpse of Walter 's head she literally jumped on him causing both of them to lose balance, but they didn't fall. His left arm where soaked with blood, _his blood_. "Oh, my God!" new tears ran on her cheeks and she hugged him tight. However Walter didn't reciprocated the embrace, too shaken up, unable to respond neither verbally than physically. Paige didn't want to let go like she was afraid to lose him over again and enjoyed that moment burying her face into his chest. She could hear his heart beat fast, but it could have been either for her or just for the adrenaline still in his body.  
Happy was the one who reached them first, then Cabe, Toby and finally Sylvester. And their looks relaxed once they saw Walter was fine… kind of.

The young woman leaned back to face him and scolded him. "What's wrong with you?!". She yelled.

Walter was taken aback by her scream and lashed out "What's wrong with _you_!" his tone was even higher than hers. He pushed her away and with no other words he walked out.

"Did I missed something?" Sly speak lowering his voice in his friends direction. They were all pretty boggled or shocked.

"I sensed something was off. I didn't predicted it would have been _this_ bad" Toby whispered back.

Paige's lip trembled a little and ran out too. Her headache increased because of her cry and now she wanted literally throwing up.  
After few minutes she found Walter walking up and down beside the wall behind the edifice, far from indiscrete eyes. She noticed that his left upper arm was now wrapped in a white cotton lint. There was still some blood on his shirt, but at least he took the time to let someone medicate it. Paige didn't approached him immediately, she waited a moment to regain some energy, to chose the right words to clarify everything that happened once for all.

Walter's mind kept running and running fast down on memory lane. _He was in front of her apartment, he looked up. Again… why did that happened again? Paige was beautiful, but then he saw her ex, stepping dangerously closer. She was laughing and grabbed his hands, just she did with him that night too, and then Paige pulled Drew closer. The expression on the ex's face was everything but confused. He looked intrigued and let her kiss him hard on the mouth. Then he embraced her, touching her in ways he could stand and that point Walter couldn't watch anymore. As he realize that a tear was streaming on his right cheek he furiously dry it away. Trying to erase the pain. After that, angrier than ever, he ran away.  
_ His hands were shaking and he stopped walking to observe them, trying to bring his brain to stop the tremor in vain. A flood of water in his eyes obstructed him to see anything more than a confused blur. Why couldn't all this just stop? He punched the wall.

"Walter. Stop it, please." that voice was a warm whisper to his ear, but he couldn't contain himself.

"Go away". He said staring at the wall.

"No, I won't" Paige said quietly upsetting him even more. He gave her a look full of hate, but she continued, getting closer. "Tell me, what's going on?" she gave him a small smile.

"Why did you do _that_?" he asked with his voice cracked; it wouldn't be long before he completely exploded.

"Why did you sent me home?" she asked him back. Walter clenched his fists and took a step back putting some distance between them. Then he shook his head pushing but the tears formed in his eyes.

"I shouldn't have… but looks like you didn't mind that much" he replied bitter.

"I was drunk, Walter!" she shouted. He saw truth in her eyes and she looked wasted. Anyway, he felt so hurt that not one explanation would have ever healed that deep cut inside of him. He always considered the heart a mere organ, fundamental for the body to function of course, but nothing more than that. Now he could literally feel it bleeding out.

"Is that so? It just happened that your lips fell on Drew's? ...You were wasted, nice excuse." He chuckled and took a step away from her. She slammed him back, pushing him hard on the chest.  
Walter was shocked by her sudden reaction.

"Don't you dare to accuse me of things I wasn't even aware of. Don't you even dare to think of telling me those things". She pointed a finger in front of his, threatening.

"Do I need to remind you that you called me an awful person, once?" Walter stepped closer furious.

"No, Walter... I never said those words" she lashed out.

"But you didn't denied them either! It the same damned thing".

"You know I was angry and I didn't mean it.".

"Well, now I am angry and I don't care about what explanation you'll pull out the cylinder next.". Walter opened his arms exhausted.

"So what now? Every time I screw up you go and try to kill yourself?" She had a point. "Whatever happened between me and Drew doesn't matter, you have to trust me."

"I'm not your toy!". Walter finally admitted how he felt in that moment. A toy. An object she used when she was okay with that and nothing more. He couldn't see over it.

Walter didn't move this time, so she try carefully to put a hand on his shoulder. He was avoiding her glance and the look on his face destroyed her. The last time he saw him that emotional was the first fight they had. They were talking about Ralph, but subtle there was something referred to both of them. When Walter asked her if he was an awful person, if it was so bad to stay around him, she knew he was talking for her. It was his silent way to tell her that he loved her. And in return, Paige just broke his heart. That tension that grew in the next months was a result of that. And they were just throwing everything away once again.

"I would have never consider you a toy... Because I really care about you, Walter".

Suddenly an echo taunted his mind. It was like he already heard those words but he couldn't place them anywhere.

"What I saw..." Walter decided to say how things were for him."Well... It hurts" he caught her attention. Walter was now looking into her eyes and only after few seconds she realized he was crying.

* * *

 _ **Next:**_ Cabe proposed the trio of geniuses a solution to "force" Walter and Paige to make peace (No, sorry, but it doesn't involved a bed, sorry. Too OOC) while they are occupied tracing down the other partner in crimes of Pyro.

 _ **A/N: things will get better in the next chapter, I promise. In the meantime, if you have something you feel odd or out of place let me know and I'll see what I can do! And tell me if you like the little glimpse of what will happen in next chapters or you prefer to be completely blind on that front. Remember to leave a review! Thank you.**_


	5. Chapter 5

_I finally made it! Here's a new chapter. Sorry for the delay, but I was busy with work and I was focused on finishing an Elyes portrait first. Thank you for waiting and I wish you'll be satisfied at the end!_

* * *

 **Chapter 5**

Paige hesitated a split second, but immediately made up her mind stepping toward Walter. She gently wiped away the tears steamed on his face. He obviously tensed up at the contact, he didn't expect it, but still what stunned him the most was the strange feeling inside his stomach telling him that her touch was _normal;_ and he surely enjoyed that very much.

"I'm truly sorry, you know..., I never meant to hurt you and i-it's not what you think it is... Trust me, Walter" She barely whispered. Her eyes were now so glossy that he could see his own reflection staring back at him. Suddenly Walter forgot why he was there, why he was angry and he lost himself into her gaze.

"What the hell were you thinking, Walter?" Cabe broke in, interrupting his thoughts. The old agent was alone. "Do you realize that Merrick will want my head for what you just did? You went in unarmed, with no experience of an hostages situation, risking your life... just to prove what? It's a miracle that Merrick decided to let us conclude this case after all that happened today!" He paused to catch his breath. He was visibly upset, but the kind of anger who people experienced when they're concerned.

"Cabe, I-"

"No, son. You shut up and listen to me, I'm not finished. Do you understand that you scared the hell of us? I had to pull Paige out of her feet" he pointed at her who immediately looked away "to stop her from running inside the building when we heard those gunshots! These stubborn and idiotic actions of yours will have consequences, I can guarantee. So, now we're going back to the garage and you tell us everything there's need to know. After that you'll take the rest of the day off"

"But-" Walter tried once again.

"No, buts" Cabe cut him off "Merrick pulled you off the case and I won't even try to make him change his mind. And make sure this is the last time you do something reckless like that. Understood?".

Walter watched him silently. Have him told the same words a year ago, Walter would have probably replied that speeches like this one didn't work on him; today, however, it would have been a lie. A lot changed since he started working for the government and having Paige and Ralph around heavily influenced his behavior, making him approach things from a new perspective. He gave Cabe a reluctant and quick nod, knowing the man in front of him was right; his actions could have led him to a not so kindly fate.

"Cabe... you need to know that there are other people out there ready to blow innocents up. He wasn't alone he was saying _we are motivated_ instead of using _I_ , then, when I asked him about other bombs in the city he answered that _his fellows_ did it instead..." he continued explaining the situation to the old agent. They needed to find those men and make sure that nobody would have died. Then he shyly asked "Is..., is there any chance, hmm..., is there any chance I might help y-".

"No. I stand corrected. No case for you anymore... I'll ask the technicians to send us the program that Pyro used on his computer, so we can work on it asap. But you won't interfere in any of that, are we clear?" Cabe waited for a confirmation from the genius.

"Sure". Walter crossed his arms and, unpleased by the mess he put himself into, he walked away head down.

Paige moved to follow him, but Cabe stopped her clearing his throat. "Whatever happened between the two of you, you'd better fix it".

"Yeah... I'm already trying." She shrugged and bit her lip. It was then Cabe placed a hand firmly on her shoulder causing her to watch straight in his eyes.

"Kid, he might be stubborn but listens to you, no matter what. I'm sure you'll find a way to figure things out, because since you came along he's changed. Everyone noticed. You changed him... for good. He's less arrogant and more human; he is the smartest person I've ever met and probably I ever will, but I never managed to make him see the world from our perspective, well..., as geniuses persist to call us, a _normal_ perspective. But you did it and you're doing a goddam job at keeping things grounded... Thanks God he found you!" he squeezed her shoulder and gave her a wide and sincere smile.

Paige almost teared up at those words and finding herself with no words to say she simply smiled him back. Then she took a deep breath and nodded. Paige remembered when he called her "the glue" of the team for the first time and that memory made her smile once again. This time the sensation she felt was even deeper. The young woman cared about Walter and she would have tried again, and again, until she'd succeed; she needed him to understand her side of the story and Cabe's words surely gave her new hope.

 **SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS**

Walter didn't talk for all the ride home. None of them talked much. To tell the truth, his silence was only physical because, if his mind had a voice, they'd probably told him to shut the hell up. Walter was replaying every single moment that happened in the last two days, he analyzed his actions and the consequences that led him to that point; he counted the errors, the variables and every "what if".  
God, if only he hadn't doubt himself around Paige so much and for so long. He couldn't comprehend many things on an emotional level, but for some reasons, she made him see that side of him who he didn't know it even existed. After that, he moved on to analyze her actions, her explanation, the fact that he didn't care to listen what she had to say; from the way she was trying to avoid the sunlight covering her eyes with sunglasses or sometimes caressing her temples, he noticed that she clearly had an headache (and he rarely saw her ever had one). He was still hurt but everything stared to slowly change into regret. He glanced at the rear-view mirror and immediately looked away when he realized they were staring at each other.

Paige was observing Walter's body language and noticed he was peeking at her through the car mirror trying to go unnoticed. She counted three, four times in less than a minute and she concluded he had something in his mind and his thoughts were about her. However only the last time he realized she was watching him too. With her disappointment he never laid his eyes on her for the rest of the ride. Paige covered her face with her hands and leaned back on her seat; she dropped her sunglasses somewhere during the run inside of the building, but didn't bothered to go back to search the area. Worst decision ever. All she wanted to do now was bury her head in the darkest place on the Earth. Fortunately the sun was going down and soon her headache would have been eased, then she needed to rest.

 **SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS**

Once they got back Toby convinced her to go upstairs to take a nap, assuring her that he already called the nanny to make sure Ralph wouldn't been alone in the meantime after school and even if Paige protested that she needed to see her son, the behaviorist suggested to be the one to go pick him up once they were done with the work today, meaning: find the other bombers.

"If could take an eternity!" a tired Paige protested.

"Should I be offended?" Toby put a hand on his heart faking a hurt expression. "Trust me, we're geniuses and as always it's only matter of minutes before we solve the case. Now go, take a nap upstairs, I'm sure that 197 here...," he lowered his voice enough so everyone could still hear "- even if he would never admitted - he would be more than pleased having you around". He wasn't even finished when Walter gave him a deadly stare, which didn't nothing but increase the grin on Toby's face. "Don't look at me like that, no matter if your upset with her for reasons to me unknown... It doesn't change the fact that since you guys came back _you_ never stopped staring at her the wrong way, well... for a genius who has a low EQ like you, of course."

Paige blushed and Walter looked away pretending he hasn't heard what his friend just said, because no matter what he would have done or said, in the end Toby was right. When Walter walked in the garage few minutes before he rapidly saw a exchange between Cabe and Toby made of nods and few words, and he fought hard to repress his curiosity. He was off the case, they would have told him anything from that moment on. So he started observing Paige in every little thing she was doing or saying and the behaviorist noticed.

After a moment of embarrassment Paige sighed and finally surrendered to Toby's will. She turned to Walter who looked like he wanted to vanish, but, since he was still staring at her, she restrained herself to giggle.

"Does it bother you if I go upstairs?" she moved a lock of hair behind her left ear.

"No" he answered a little to quickly, so he measured his next words "No. Go ahead, you need to rest. Just make yourself comfortable. They're working here and I'll keep myself occupied on the rocket, so no one will disturb you".

Paige nodded and slowly climbed the stairs. She was glad to hear Walter's voice softened, he was relaxing and that was a good start; perhaps Toby was right.

Then he watched Paige close the door behind her and wondered if she still wanted to clear things up or it was better to let them go. _No, she'd never let things go unsolved,_ he thought and neither he would. He walked in the other side but suddenly he felt a pair of hands keeping him still.

"Hmm, we should take you upstairs" said Toby with a strong hold he started bringing him toward the stairs.

"Toby, what are you doing? I can walk too" he responded sarcastically. He was literally pushed him up and he began to get suspicious "Toby, I said I'd worked on the rocket...Stop it! I get I cannot take part of this case but the way your treating me is unbelievable! So, explain it to me" he turned to face him once they were standing in front of the door of his loft.

"Nope". Then he pushed him hard making Walter losing his balance and locked the door.

Walter was taken aback by all that and shouted. "How dare you treating me like that? This his my home and I want you to unlock the door, _right now_ "

"Walt, trust me. This is better for everyone. We don't want you to do anything that might put your life in peril again, and, in order to do that Cabe decided to lock you in. Okay? This is not my idea, I just made sure everything was in check... with the help of Happy and Sylvester."

"What?" disbelief was written all over Walter's face.

Paige who assisted the entire scene was baffled as well. "What's going on Toby?" she asked walking near Walter.

"Listen guys, you needed to talk anyway... right? We're just doing you a favor". Toby replied through the door.

"I'm gonna kill him" Walter muttered then he looked at Paige "Did you know any of this?"

Her eyes wide open was a first response "I'm clueless as you are". She shook her head. "All I want is just to get some rest. So Toby, please, just open the door."

"Kids? There's no time to argue I need to get back to work. Be cool and don't break anything, not that there's much to break anyway" Toby continued "I lock every door and every window. There's nothing to be used to escape the loft, I have your phones and computers... Just the two of you in a room and some books. Ah! And don't fight!"

"Toby? You cannot do this. This is not fair," Walter was trying his best to maintain his calm "Toby? TOBY? Come back here!" he punched the door.

"Hey!" Paige grabbed his arm and turn him around to face him. "He won't. You know that, so... now let's pretend that nothing happened. You work on something up here, like... the board. You can make some equation for Ralph, what do you say?".

Walter looked very pissed. "Okay..., I'll wait until they go out then I'll open the door". Paige looked puzzled so he explained "I have the spare key hidden here".

"I have that too!" they heard Toby's voice through the door causing Walter to roll his eyes and Paige to giggle.

They both stayed silent for a while then Paige decided to break the awkwardness in the room. "Well... I'll go on the couch to get some sleep then, my head is still pounding." she moved toward the couch but he grabbed his hand to stop her. Paige suddenly looked back at him surprised. He was avoiding her face "Why don't you used the bed instead?" he whispered. Paige could have swear she saw him blush "It's more efficient for a better sleep." he quickly added.

She agreed and thanked him for that. She laid down on the soft mattress and inhaled the scent on the pillow, his scent. Of course she made sure he wasn't watching, because it was already embarrassing being in his bed, let alone sleeping in it. Paige paid attention to everything he was doing and smiled when she realized he was actually writing a math expression on the board as she suggested. Obviously he didn't have really much to do beside that or read a book.

"Walter?" she called for his attention.

"Hmm" he simply replied keeping his eyes on the numbers in front of him.

"Listen I... I just wanted to tell you th-that. Hmm." she wanted to explain everything she felt about their situation, from the beginning but suddenly she could find the right words to express herself. She took a deep breath and shift her position looking now at the ceiling.

When Walter heard her calling his name he was too preoccupied to write on his board than to turn around. He could do both things at the same time. But when Paige started talking about something she wanted him to know he understood where she was going. He placed the black marker down and stood there watching her on his bed. She was lying facing the ceiling and playing with her fingers, her frown spoke volumes as she was clearly conflicted to explain herself in the best way.  
Then her voice echoed in the room once again.

"When I came up here to say goodbye that night I was surprised that you were already asleep... and then I didn't know what once I heard you calling my name. Well the rest of that story is known to both of us... but when I came back the next morning you pushed me away and I felt terrible. I was disappointed because you wanted to avoid me and somehow I expected it but..., but I didn't know it could hurt me so badly." Walter sat on the egde of the bed next to her and that action alone made her escape a tear from her eye. She quickly dry it away before he'd notice. He was looking straight ahead biting his lower lip visibly anxious, but the closeness comforted her to continue "I was so happy to know you felt something for me too. I know that you don't called this love, I have no idea how would you call what you're experiencing right now. Anyway... I tried to keep my mind busy for a while, but every time I started something my thought always went back to you. I care about you very much and..., and then I was c-confused, upset... so this morning instead of coming at work I drove back home and I-I got drunk..."

Walter was concentrated on her words but he couldn't help but avoid her gaze. He felt ashamed for being upset at her all day, when he clearly got everything wrong. She moved up and sat beside him. Then she leaned her head on his shoulder. He didn't froze, and that was a first. Walter was confused by his own reaction and almost scared of the power she had on him.

"...Whatever you saw this morning, surely wasn't me. It was a faked bad version who no one should ever see. I feel so bad I gave you mixed signals, but you need to know this, Walter... every time I left the garage I couldn't wait to be the next day already because it meant I'd see you once again. Every time I walk in the garage and I smell cinnamon my heart warmed up because I know that no one else beside me like it in the coffee, but you're persistence on adding cinnamon on the coffee pot made me smile wider. And I did know you cared, from that little thing, from the lavender scent always all over the place... from the way you stared at me sometimes... I wasn't so sure you felt more, like I d-do... but having it for a moment the other night was the best thing that happened in my life since I gave birth of Ralph. I was happy".

Paige wanted to ask him about the undercover mission with Sima, if that _I love hearing your voice in my ear_ was actually meant for her or he just caught up in the moment. She wanted to ask him, when they were surrounded by fire in the forest, if he moved his hand to touch hers because he meant more than simple comfort out of a deadly situation. Paige wanted to ask him if he was still angry at her, but he covered her hand with his fingers and she received a clear answer. His fingers were shaking, so she took a step forward and interlaced her fingers with his fingers, and closed her eyes.

"I love you Walter" she mumbled.

Walter watched at their hands for a while. And kept repeating those last meaningful words in his head unable to stop. He knew she was waiting for his reply but he was conflicted. He never believed in love, it was silly temporary and he didn't needed... Until that very moment. That sensation, that feeling he couldn't comprehend suddenly was clear as day in his brain. It was that very emotion he couldn't bring himself to understand that kept him from wanting more, because no matter what his brilliant mind was saying to him. No matter if he always called that emotion, junk science. It wasn't that anymore.

"I love you too" he spelled out the words in a whisper and waited. He admitted and he finally found himself at ease. She never replied, Paige was already fallen asleep.

"Hmm, great" he said frustrated.

He carefully laid her down on the blanket and walked past his back leaning down. He knocked once, twice on the ceiling right beside the drawer, near the floor. It was empty, he punched the wall and he pulled a key out. The _other_ key of his apartment, unknown to anyone. Walter watched Paige sleeping peacefully and left the loft.

Paige woke up three hours later and the loft was empty. She immediately called Walter's name few times, but she got no response. She had no phone so she couldn't call anyone, then she thought that if Walter wasn't in the room it meant only one thing. The door was in fact unlocked, but when she heard steps coming up the stairs she didn't think much.

"Walter? Is that you?" no reply, only steps slowly coming closer "Walter?" she tried again.

Silence.

Panic took over her body, she quickly looked around and grabbed a lamp. She stopped behind the door waiting for the person to come up. When that one opened the door she moved to hit him or she hard on the head...

* * *

 _ **Next chapter:**_ _Who's the man/woman in the garage? It's late, why the team isn't back yet? And where is Walter?_

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 _A/N: it wasn't supposed to ended like this, but this chapter was longer than I anticipated so I opted for this ending. Promise the last chapter will be updated sooner! Reviews are always accepted! Thank you always for reading this story (and if you find any mistake please tell me).  
_


	6. Chapter 6

_I'm terribly sorry for the delay. I've been busy with other stuff and work. But here I am again! Hope you'll still stick with me and this story, it's not over yet!  
Thank you for all the reviews and the passion I read in your comments!_

* * *

 _ **Chapter 6**_

 _Paige woke up three hours later and the loft was empty. She immediately called Walter's name few times, but she got no response. She had no phone so she couldn't call anyone, then she thought that if Walter wasn't in the room it meant only one thing. The door was in fact unlocked, but when she heard steps coming up the stairs she didn't think much._

 _"Walter? Is that you?" no reply, only steps slowly coming closer "Walter?" she tried again._

 _Silence._

 _Panic took over her body, she quickly looked around and grabbed a lamp. She stopped behind the door waiting for the person to come up. When that one opened the door she moved to hit him or she hard on the head..._

Paige held the lamp tightly in her hands ready to smash it onto the intruder's head. In few seconds a train of thoughts ran through her mind: what if that person hurt Walter? God, She called his name and now the intruder knew her location, and was coming to get her too. She briefly closed her eyes and inhaled a deep breath trying to calm herself, then she shift her weight on the opposite side of the door and lift her hands, adjusting her fingers onto the surface of the lamp. She could hear steps coming closer and then they stopped right in front of the door. When the handle started to move Paige jumped ahead with the intent to hit the aggressor hard on his head.

"Ahhh-oouch!". Suddenly the lamp fell on the floor and so did an hot cup. The blue cup, that Walter smashed once, was now in pieces again. Paige, with horror on her face, clasped the shoulder of the man in front of her who groaned in pain at her touch. "Oh God! I'm so sorry…"

Walter stared at her, lips parted still in shock for the attack because he surely expect everything but that. His right shoulder hurt and, when she touched him, he could swear he'd seen Orion right in front of his eyes. He tried to focus on her lips moving fast, but he couldn't neither hear or understand anything of what she was saying.  
"Fortunately I have the worst aim in history or you would b-…" Paige noticed he was focus on her lips and realized then that he had earphones in his ears, so raising her eyebrows she slowly removed them causing him to tickle. Paige giggled in response.

"What's so funny?" A confused Walter asked.

"You are ticklish" she couldn't stop giggling at the funny faces Walter was involuntarily making, "but… talking about serious stuff, isn't that my I-pod?" she asked cocking her head and pointing her fingers toward his pocket. Walter suddenly pulled the earphones out of her hands and quick, he hid them in his pocket while he spoke in auto-pilot.

"No, why should you think I b-borrow your things?… Y-you know I always considered music a waste of time…, well, beside the fact that music is indeed based on math…" he kept blurting out words, but the more he talked the more Paige couldn't catch the meaning of those anymore. So she stopped listening.

Paige suddenly raised her hand to surrender. "Ok, I got it! Stop…, for God's sake!" Walter froze at her statement and started studying her intensely. His gaze cut deep inside and Paige had that strange sensation who bring her to think about their short talk they had few hours before. Actually _she_ did all the talking and remembered that at some point she fell asleep.

They both started talking at the same time. Walter scratched his temple still nervous and insisted for her to talk first. The genius looked uncomfortable and Paige was tempted to use the word: _emotional_.

"No, Walter. You were clearly going to say something before I could even formulate my question, so…" she invited to speak. In response he looked away from her.

"Why did you hit me?". It was the first of many questions that were bugging him and he decided to start with that one. He spoke avoiding her look, opting to watch the cup smashed on the floor beside them.

She noticed where his eyes were laid on and she did the same. "I thought you were an intruder. I woke up and you weren't here, I didn't know what to think… I called your name three, four time…., I don't know. And when you didn't answer I panicked." She paused and step aside to catch his eyes and look through them. Walter was taken aback by her movement and found himself staring back at her. Paige was standing really close to him. "Now I know that you couldn't hear anything because of the music in your ears..., and well, you know what?…, You actually haven't said anything yet about _that thing_ " she abruptly change subject, partially because she hurt him and was feeling guilty enough, and partially because she wanted an answer to all she said to him "I mean, I clearly expressed my feelings to you… and I said what you still stubbornly call… _junk science._ " She finished in a whisper.

Walter was staring at her, holding her gaze for what it seemed to be an eternity, then, when his voice filled the room, Paige woke up for her trance she didn't realize to be into "I actually told you something too, but when I was done talking I realized you were already asleep. You were really tired and I didn't bothered to wake you up.".

"Oh…, And what did you tell me?" she stepped closer to him, if that was even possible. They were few inches away from each other, neither of them lose eye contact for a moment. Walter was sure she could hear his heartbeat, fast and irregular.

"I… I s-said." Walter tried to speak but the words didn't want to come out, he felt his mouth dry like never before "I-" he decided it was better to show her rather than searching for words he couldn't formulate and slowly he leaned on her lips.

The phone downstairs started ringing and Walter pulled away from her before he could touch her lips. The moment was ruined, damned phone. However none of them move even if they were looking away from each other, afraid on what to say or do.

"I guess you should answer" Paige whispered calm.

"It might be Toby controlling us. Anyway the voicemail should start in a matter of seconds." And so it did.

"Walter?" the voice asked through the phone echoing inside the garage. "Walter O'Brien?" the voice asked again more playful. "I know you're there…. Come on Walter, pick up the phone".

"Walter, who's that?" Paige asked him, but he was frozen, his breath erratic and it looked like he saw a ghost or something, she couldn't figure it out. The voice called his name again "I'm losing my patience, Walt. Answer the damned phone!"

"He was supposed to be dead" his voice was barely audible. Her confusion was growing and she followed him down the stairs. Walter hesitated twice before he made up his mind and finally pressed the speaker button. He was shaking and hoped that the woman right behind him didn't notice it. He kept telling himself that situation was surreal; one moment he was about to open up to Paige and the other the world seemed to be crushing on his shoulders. His mind gave him hints of noises and fragments of images that he would always have remembered in his life. He shook himself awake and cleared his throat.

"I'm here."

"Glad you finally pick up the phone. Come on, tell me… are you surprised?"

"Why are you calling me, Dylan?" he heard a laugh from the other side of the line.

"Wow, yes Walter. Thanks for asking, I'm alive and well." Walter rolled his eyes at that sarcastic statement as the male voice continued "Why am I calling? Actually _genius_ , I was trying to avoid you as long as possible. I'm sincere, but you had to go and make the hero… You know, I don't like what I'm going to say… mmm, let's see. First of all sorry for the inconvenience but you're friends here, yes, _they're here_ … with me. They stuck their nose in something that really shouldn't have." he paused "Oh, and this Chinese girl hits hard, you know? She almost kicked me in the jewels. Anyway, I'm here to talk about… SHUT UP!" he shouted far from the phone causing Paige to jump. Walter immediately looked at her and recognized a mix of fear and confusion on her face. No wonder how he would look like at the moment, probably not so great either. "As I was saying… I want you to do something for me"

"Who's behind all this?" Walter demanded clenching his right fist.

"Ah! I almost forgot how much direct you are with these kind of stuff. And know your level of curiosity won't stop easily, but for your safety I won't te-"

"Do you even hear yourself? _Safety_ , seriously?! You don't talk about protecting people while you just took _who I care about_ hostages!" Walter was failing at keep his cool, not when it was about Toby, Happy, Sly and Cabe. He was furious. And Paige, on the other hand, didn't know how to calm him down; she wanted to, but maybe the reason was that she couldn't even calm herself first. She approach him and ran his fingers on the palm of his left hand causing him to turn and look at her. He stayed like that in a mix of emotions written all over his face until Dylan, whoever he was, continued his explanation.

"Look, I get it, you're pissed. But there's not much time left, so I'll go straight to the point. I need you to retrieve the device used today for the bombings. You'll take that and one more thing. Is your lovely liaison hearing this conversation?"

"There's no one else here" Walter replied dryly giving a look at Paige who stepped closer to the phone.

"Naah, we both know you're lying and let's be honest you've never been good at it. If you think to be able to use her to reach out the feds, Homeland or anybody else, you're completely wrong..." Silence fell in the garage, Walter was thinking and Paige was too intent to observe him concentrate on the next move to realize that the man was calling her name.

"Paige Dineen, my dear Lady, you won't do anything stupid, ok? I know exactly where your son is, so don't be foolish and follow the rules. I would never forgive myself if something bad happens to-"

"You son of a bitch! Don't you dare to treat my son..." Paige was livid and the touch of Walter's hand on hers didn't change much on her current state of anger. However he whispered slowly in her ear "Nobody's going to hurt Ralph, I won't let it happen". Then he retracted his hand a little embarrassed and turn to the phone serious.

"What's the other thing?"

"I would say who, rather than what"

Walter didn't even formulate a though in his mind that he already knew who he was talking about "Collins" he said under his breath. However his tone was audible from the other side of the line.

"I knew you would figure out immediately who I was talking about". He imagined a grin on Dylan's face.

Walter heard Toby's voice asking what Collins had to do with the bombing events and if he was responsible too. But it quickly died when he got kicked by the kidnapper causing Walter to snap "Stop it! If you hurt any of them once again, be sure... You'll regret it!"

"Walt, I don't think you're in a position in which you can dictate the rules. You have until midnight to bring

everything I want. Otherwise they die."

Paige brought a hand over her mouth and repress the urge to cry. She ran up the stairs to search for her phone and dialed the home number.

"Come on, answer the phone..." After three rings she heard a little voice coming through the phone.

"Hello?"

"Ralph" that's all she was able to say and released the breath she realized she was holding until that very moment.

"Is everything okay, mom? Are you going to be home soon?"

"Sweetheart," she found the strength to talk over the tears fell on her cheeks "I'm actually gonna be a little late tonight. There's still few things to be fixed here and I cannot leave until they are. Is Helena there?"

"Yes" the boy answered and a female voice greeted Paige. The nanny sounded a little tired, but Paige had no other choice but to convince her to stay for the night and the woman reluctantly accepted after Paige told her she would have paid her a consistent extra.

Walter watched Paige running up the stairs and vanished over the door of his loft, probably to check on Ralph. The call ended a moment before and Walter found himself alone in the garage. He was used to be alone, but not now that someone from his past came back and treated to hurt his family. He would have never allowed that and he swore that if things wouldn't have gone the way they were supposed to, he would have stepped beyond that thin line that separated good and evil with no hesitation.

He watched his clock and calculated that they had 4 hours, 37 minutes and 15 seconds to made up to the deal. When he reached the top of the stairs he was climbing he wait a moment, unsure if Paige needed more privacy, but unfortunately they didn't have much time.  
"Paige?" Walter called her name while he pushed the door open.  
"Yeah, I'm here. I just called Ralph, he sounded fine..., hmm I also asked the babysitter to stay late tonight, so it's not going to be a problem".  
It didn't took a genius to figure out that Paige was nervous and Walter walked closer to her and tried to reassure her in his own awkward way. He gave her a little pat on the shoulder and thought what would Paige would have done in a situation like that.

Walter O'Brien took her in unexpected hug, he was getting used to the physical contact when it came to Paige. Actually, he secretly love those little moments with her. That psychiatric was right, he enjoyed dance with her. And he felt a shiver down his spine when he moved his hand reaching hers few minutes ago. He loved every dreams he made about her, ever since he realized that if she'd left few months back he would have been devastated. However he'd never admit it to any living souls, less than ever to Toby.

Paige buried her face in his chest and inhaled his scent. Nothing special, really, but it was _him_ and that was enough for her in that moment. She was pleasantly surprised by his behavior lately and she decided to not question it. Paige just enjoyed this moment of comfort he was giving her.  
Once again a question popped up in her mind; actually not a question anymore, the opposite at that point, a confirmation. Hadn't the phone rang in that very moment Walter would have kissed her, and there was no doubt left to the fact that he surely struggled to repeat those words he constantly denied. She was an hundred percent sure that he told her that he loved her. God, why did she fell asleep? That explained his behavior lately.

"We need to implement our plan and succeed" he whispered slowly. Walter once again was the first to pull away.

"What do you have in mind?" She placed her hands on the hips waiting for the genius to speak.

"Something good, dangerous and..." he ran his finger through his curls and raise an eyebrow "you're not gonna like it".

"What?!"Paige moved away from him to look into his eyes. He simply raised his eyebrows.

 _ **Next: The idea Walter has, will it be dangerous? Who is this man Dylan really?... Answers and new hints in chapter 7!**_

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 **A/N: Thanks for your patience. Review, please!**


	7. Chapter 7

_A/N: Thanks for all of your reviews, the new favorites and follows. Those keeps me going on writing this story. It will have few more chapters, full of action, drama but also bright moment... so do not despair there is light at the end of the tunnel._

* * *

 _ **Chapter 7**_

"Walter… what are you talking about?"

She grabbed his wrist but he didn't dare to turn to face her. Walter briefly closed his eyes and ran his fingers through his curls. He took time to formulate a sentence that wouldn't include Paige to basically call him insane, but the most efficient way was go straight to the point since they hadn't that much time to think about something else less dangerous.

"We're going to figure out where Homeland brought the driver used today so you can steal it while I go get Collins out of prison". Walter hesitantly waited for her answer and finally shifted his eyes from the door in front on him to her soft silhouette. The genius immediately notice that Paige was searching something in his eyes but, despite his enormous intellect, he couldn't figure out what it was.

"Okay" She answered resolute nodding.  
Paige trusted Walter that much to not question his plan, whatever it was going to be, because after all he had one of the higher IQ in the planet. Then, under that kind of pressure with family involved, his brain worked even better and he prove it more than once before.  
Her statement caused Walter to raise both eyebrows since he expected hesitation from her and was pleasantly surprised by her reaction.

"Seriously? You're not going to tell me I'm insane or that this is a dangerous-"

"We did something like this before, so just cut the crap and tell me what to do!" there was fire of determination in her eyes because all she could thing about was Ralph, and that man dared to blackmailed her involving him in his evil plan; Paige would have never let it go that easily.  
"Just one question" she continued while Walter crossed his arms mindful "who's Dylan?".

Walter's lips were now a thin line as a sensation came back to haunt him. Memories started appearing fast in front of his eyes, but they weren't sad nor hurtful. Probably _that_ was the main reason all he could feel in that very moment was rage. After all Dylan was his first best friend, one of the very few people beside Megan who really understood the way his mind works and how he related to the _normal_ world.  
When Dylan got involved in a car accident and died, Walter tried hard to forget him and now, putting what he'd been through into a new light, all this might be worse than the truth he always came to know. And he always hated mistrust.

Walter clearly didn't want to answer that question and, seeing his hesitation, Paige leaned forward touching his arm.  
"Walter? It's okay if you don't want to answer me". She gave him a sincere smile. In response Walter shook his head.

"He was a friend… and mmm.., a very good friend actually" he tried to fake a smile, failing poorly "I thought he was dead, but… apparently I lived in a lie". He hoped that that little bit of information would satisfied her curiosity and prevent her to go further into that uncomfortable exchange.

"I see" the woman said with calm voice, keeping her eyes locked on his. The answer he gave her was better than nothing.

Walter nodded few times before he spoke again "Follow me. We're gonna need Megan's help too, since… he shot her a glance "well…, since Ralph is off limits". He meant more with that statement than he actually wanted to, but he didn't regret it.

Paige received his words straight into the chest like a sharp knife. He was still burned by their fight the night of his accident and, even if they never brought it up again, sometimes Paige felt Walter was keeping his distance whenever Ralph was involved and clearly looked insecure.  
His last statement confirmed everything.

 **SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS**

"Why Megan?" She asked while they ran down the stairs.

"Because" he started explaining and walked around Toby's desk, grabbed his laptop and headed toward the table in the middle of the garage, fast. "We need to have more intel on Dylan and his connection with Collins, the man I shot today and whoever is behind these attacks".

"Wait a minute" Paige raised a hand perplexed "Aren't you supposed to know the connection between the two of them already?"

Walter met her eyes and noticed the confusion "Oh… no, no. I don't think that Collins told me all the truth about them, but I suspect they were attracted to each other".

At that point Paige was staring at Walter speechless. "Are you implying that they were...?"

"Yeah, I think so" he said blatantly.

"You mean a genius-like stuff, right?" Paige asked unsure if he got what she was really intended to say.

"No, Dylan isn't genius." He paused and smirked "I know what you were implying."

"And how could you recognize that they were more than friends if you don't believe in-" she stopped mid-sentence unable to finish it.

There was something in his stare that made her lose the gift of the word. It was the way he was looking at her, but it died quickly as he realize she wasn't talking anymore.

Walter looked away and focused on the monitor in front of him. "Would you _please_ call my sister on her phone? I'm sure she will answer it even if the doctor said she should keep it switched off in her wardrobe and try to rest instead". He said in one breath and didn't dare to look at her for the second time that night. He was almost frustrated for the mixed feeling he was experiencing. They were beyond his knowledge.

"Yeah, sure" he heard her response and only then, he looked at her sure that she was giving him her back. Walter was right, Paige was standing facing the opposite side, when she dialed Megan's number.

Paige waited until she heard a voice on the other side of the line.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Megan. It's Paige... Uhm-Wait, I'll put you in speaker" she pressed button and sat on the edge of the table. Then Walter immediately took control of the conversation "Megan? We need your help"

"Hey little bro, you know I was actually going to ask you the same thing." Walter and Paige shared a brief look. They both knew what was coming. "Sylvester, are you there?".  
Silence.

"Guys? Are you still there".

"Yes, yeah... We're here" Paige quickly answered "but it's only Walter and I, the others are out-" she looked at Walter unable to decide what to add next. Walter shook his head, there wasn't need to lie to her sister.

"Megan, the team is in peril that's the reason we called you. We're going need your help to get them out of a delicate situation they've been dragged in... as soon as possible and possibly all in one piece".

"What?!" The sister yelled.

"But you don't need to worry, really! Your brother and I have everything under control". Paige intervened with the intent of calm her down at least a little. Then she eyed Walter with a severe look. _Couldn't you use more touch, Walter?_

"Did you guys already called the authorities? Homeland perhaps?"

"We can't. The men behind this intricate mess are very dangerous..." Walter paused and decided to let her know his friend came back from the death. "One of those men is Dylan… Nash. He's alive and he's the one who took the team hostage".

"Whoa… wait a minute. What are talking about… How, how is it even possible?"

"I have no idea actually, I tried to find a solution for the last 10 minutes but the result is a blank space every time" Walter put the laptop on the couch beside him and, stretching his legs, he went to grab a glass of water on the other side of the garage. He raised his voice enough for Megan to hear in the other side of the phone when he continued. "But now, acknowledging this new piece of information, I need you to focus on everything you remember about him and use that knowledge to help us…. We need to be quicker as possible. He gave us a deadline at midnight".

Paige was extremely anxious and hearing Megan asking if the guy she loved was okay made her heart clench. An unusual Walter answered to every single question she had with calm and sweetness. She wasn't used to see this softer and human side of him and didn't remember anyone else who had ever been treated like that by Walter O'Brien. She witnessed few conversations between the siblings since the first time they met, but only now she could truly see the deep and strong bond they had.

"How can I possibly help you then?" Megan's voice brought Paige back to reality.

"I need you to get up and took out the box I placed in the drawer under a pair of blue jeans last week" the brother instructed while he placed the empty glass in the sink.

"The green box I wasn't supposed to open until my birthday?"

"Exactly. Unfortunately we need it now" he heard her sister opening the box and mumbling something that sounded like ' _of course it's a computer_ '. Walter figured Megan rolling her eyes at the sight of the electronic device.

"Walt, what am I supposed to do with this piece of technology?" she didn't sounded annoyed but neither pleased.

Walter sat down again and opened the laptop tapping fast on the keyboard.

"It's not the machine per se, but the software I developed for you is fundamental. The gift" he paused and looking at the phone right beside the spot where Paige was sitting. "Well, I created this

software due efficiency in your daily life and keeping you independent. You can simply give vocal commands on every single thing you want to do, see or know. It's an helper and it works only with your voice."

"You made a program exclusively for me? To help me with MS?"

"Yes" he quickly answered.

"That's sweet of you". Walter raised his head when he heard Paige's voice echoing in the garage. She had her usual smile stamped on her lips, the one she gave him when she was proud, or at least he interpreted that way. He found himself staring at her with an idiotic smile, so he shook

his head and got back to his sister.

"I need you to search something for me."

"Hell yes! Finally I have the chance to be part of Team Scorpion and hack something for you!"

"Yes, but Megan... you need to be careful"

He explained how the software worked and how to make sure to not get caught. Paige was listening to his words as he had an answer to any possible question Megan asked; seeing all of his IQ at work was fascinating.

"So, this thing work only with the commands given with my voice only"

"Exactly. However I added a well hidden backdoor that I'm now using to add last few changes".

Walter created the device so it wasn't allowed to hack anything at all, but with those new digits in the script, it was now able to crack any site of the government of this Country and of the rest of the world too.

"The thing she's going to do... Are you sure it's safe?" Paige asked the genius. "If I got all this right you're telling that she has to hack in four different sites at the same time and you know, if she get caught the consequences will be far worse than what happened to you. I don't need to remind you that there's no Cabe around here to protect us".

"Paige, nothing is safe at this point, but surely time is not by our side and we need all the resources at our disposal"

"Don't worry girl!" Megan intervened "if anything goes wrong I'll say that E.T. told me I had to do this because the Earth is in peril and..., some UFO wants to destroy it!?"

At this point Paige bursted in laughs.

"Sure and then they'll send you to Arkham!" His time was Megan who laugh loudly.

Walter was utterly confused "I don't understand the referen-"

"It's a joke, you silly. You need to watch some good movies sometimes, you know?" Megan cut him off. Walter confusion persisted, he even muttered _normals_ , which did nothing but make the girls giggling once again.

Moving on with the plan and having decided how to communicate (through a burning phone) for the rest of the night, they said goodbye to one another.

Paige closed the call and stood up and walked toward Walter. She cleared her throat to catch his attention. "So, care to explain how am I suppose to steal a driver we don't even know where it-"

"In a special section of Homeland. They tag it as dangerous so it goes there. It's a room full of stuff that Homeland PERQUISISCE." He answered quickly, eyes on the lightly screen in front of him "Right here". He pointed a square on the monitor as Paige leaned forward to see the screen closely.

Her scent sent a shiver in his every bones and Walter missed what she was now asking.

"Could you repeat, please?" She gave a clueless look.

"I didn't say a word"

"Um..., I thought that... No, well..., it doesn't matter" he concluded shifting his eyes once again on the laptop. Did he really imagine she was talking? The only thing he was now aware of was the way Paige was observing him in that very moment. And even if he wasn't directly looking at her he could feel her stare that gave him a bad sensation of nakedness.

Suddenly he felt his heartbeat raising once again that night.

"Mmm..., here you can s-see the point where agent Crawford, present on the scene today" he controlled the name on memo written previously and in Notepad. Walter started to regain control of his unexplored emotions. "Yes, it's him..., and I just sent the device containing the driver. It's already connected to a computer, probably some agent is trying to get access".

"What if when I get there that agent is still in the room checking the computer?"

"You need to use your gift of convincing people on doing what you want and make him leave"

"My what?" with both hands on her hips, Paige raised her eyebrows incredulous.

"Y-you know how to use words, you are... A good looking w-woman..., and well, if my calculation are correct, which they are 97% of the tim-"  
"Okay, okay... I get it, I'm raising a white flag. You want me to flirt with the guy in order to get that stuff out of the room". Paige sat few inches away from him and kept talking "first of all, how do I get

in?" When she looked at Walter she could see he was bright red and looked a little jealous too.

"Say that you work for Homeland. Use Cabe's name and ask to see the devices used in the hostage situation that took place today down town. But remember to give them a false name..., oh you're gonna need a wig too. Blonde, we'll buy that on the way there." He closed the laptop satisfied and put it back onto Toby's desk. Then marched to grab the keys of Paige's car but she was faster. The woman stopped him with a firm touch on his chest leaving her palm onto his warm shirt.

"You have yet to tell me what you're going to do to bring Collins out of prison and the most important thing too. Where we need to bring him and the device if Dylan didn't say a thing about it?!"

Walter talked, eyes to her hand placed on the chest. "He didn't, but soon he will." His eyes shifted to hers "Remember? He's controlling us, so I expect him to call us very soon."

Then Walter took a step back and grab the box with burning phones they already used the previous year for a case involving Cabe's wife, Rebecca.

"Take this" he gave her a phone and once she grabbed it he continued. "I'm sending you a message so you will know the number of this one" Walter agitated the phone in the air and, faster than ever, he composed a text sending it to Paige.

"Got it."

They left the garage running to the car. There were less than 3 hours left before their friends would have faced un unknown fate. Walter approached the car door on the driver side and opened the door. He froze.

Paige noticed it immediately as he was hesitant and didn't move further. It was like he was fighting with his own body as his brain was blocking him in place.

"Walter..., what's wrong?"  
He stayed quite before he shook out of his trance and gave her an apology look. "I think I'm experiencing a panic attack". He said slowly lowering his voice.

"Seriously?! Now?" she slammed her door and walked around the car. Without thinking she grabbed his shoulder catching his full attention "No Walt, you are not".

"I can't control it Paige"

"You went on a fast & furious ride last night with no consequences..."

"How do you..?"

"Happy told me while you went inside the building today to do the hero once again".  
Paige looked straight in eyes and cupped his cheeks slowly, to give him the right time to process the touch. Giving his repulsion to human contact she didn't want him to feel uncomfortable "Now _take a deep breath... And reset_ " she whispered.

His eyes were locked to hers. "You already told me this once".

"And that I did" a big smile formed on her lips, Paige ran quickly her finger through his curls and picked his cheek.

"Ahh..., o-okay." He cleared his throat "But this is slightly different... I'm under pressure now, despite yesterday when I was relaxing my nerves."

"Then use escapism.., what did you say months ago? That you used danger as..." She waited for the genius to conclude the sentence.

"Meditation" he stated eyes closed.

"Exactly" she kept smiling to encourage him. He wasn't sure at all and seeing him in that state hurt her so much. Paige didn't like him so vulnerable and she was sure he tried all the time to hide it from her and the team.

"Deep breath. Reset..." Walter looked more determined. "Ok, I'm ready!".

"Thank you" he added before they both climbed into Paige's car. She didn't answer and didn't need to, because the warm glance she gave him was truly enough.

They briefly stopped along the way, just the time necessary for Walter to buy the blond wig that Paige would have used that night. Then they changed car, illegally of course, and took a black Camaro and a Mustang (no Ferrari for Walter this time around). Then they drove fast to the prison where Collins were locked in.

Once they arrived, not so far from the building, Walter switched off the engine. In the other car Paige was ready to leave and go to Homeland headquarters in the nearby, but first she approached Walter in the Camaro and climbed in.

"So... Ready for the action?" She was the first to break the silence.

"One hour, forty-five minutes and fifteen seconds left. We can make it" he said watching ahead observing the dark place in front of them. Prisons kept taunting him in one way or another. He took a deep breath and turn his head to see Paige who was looking at the building with a sad and

preoccupied look on her face.

"Did he called?" She was talking about Dylan, who else then?

"No. He sent me a message four minutes ago" he said grabbing his phone. "Here. I forwarded it to your phone. Obviously the address chosen result being from the other side of Los Angeles, so, we need to move now" he said those words pretty fast, but his voice sounded calm at the same time. Paige told herself that it was probably caused but his inability of experiencing fear, but it was hardly believable anymore after everything that happened to them in the last months.  
"I know. But I'm afraid... for you." She shoot him a quick glance and turn to face the night outside the car window. "Promise me you won't do anything stupid" she almost heard her voice cracked on the last words.  
"I promise" he nodded and reassured with a sincere smile. "Uhm..., Paige?"

He grabbed her wrist before she could leave the vehicle. "Good luck" he didn't exactly planned to say that since he didn't believe in it, but Paige did and that was all that matters.

"There's no such thing... For a genius like you at least" she leaned forward and kiss him on the corner of the mouth.

"Come back safe and I'll give you the rest". She teased him.

"Okay" he answered under his breath too silent for Paige to hear it.

Once she left he prepared himself for the big plan. Walter unlocked his phone and opened an app, then he turned to the prison and in two seconds the lights went off.

"Thanks Happy" he said to himself. She developed a electric circuit that worked on the same principle he used in this app. And with that move he suddenly felt to be seventeen again, hacking his way into the boring world.

Walter ran fast inside the dark building unaware of what he was really going to deal with, but after all it was worth the risk, his family, his cyclone was worth it.

* * *

 _ **Next: Will Paige be able to recover the device? And how Walter planned to get Collins out of prison?**_

 _Share your thoughts, leave a comment! It's always appreciated. Thank you._


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